Holy Trinity Seminar Group

CONSCIOUS AGING--A SURVEY

HOLY TRINITY CHURCH

SEMINAR 2018-2019FACILITATOR: Bill Hocking
TO REGISTER CONTACT: 410-349-0329 or billhocking100@comcast.netCOURSE DESCRIPTION: We meet once a month (every third Saturday) starting on Saturday, September 15, 2018, ending on May 18, 2019, 9-11AM.We will explore current and recent literature on the Art of Life Completion, finding and implementing the Tools for Harvesting Life, Mentoring our youth, discovering Gratitude in our everyday lives, and giving and receiving Forgiveness. We need to ask ourselves, “What are the beliefs and attitudes we hold about aging?” We live in a society that does not honor elders and see the value in aging. We can only begin to transform our beliefs about aging when we first honestly look at the fears, hopes, attitudes, and beliefs we carry about our aging process. Only by becoming conscious of these inner dynamics that shape our lives can we do the necessary work of replacing dis-empowering inner images with images that can support growth and fulfillment in life. At every step of the way we follow the Jesuit motto “Finding God in All Things.”
--No One, But No One Need Make This Journey Alone--
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
*To improve listening skills
*To nourish Life-Long-Learning
*To be socially active and to develop deeply important
relationships
*To formulate our legacy
*To accept the past and appreciate past accomplishments
*To enjoy life and develop playfulness
*To cultivate relationships with old friends and to be successful in
making new ones
*To gain knowledge on the latest thinking about death and dying
issues
*To explore within, life characteristics of gratitude, forgiveness,
healing relationships, and service to others
BOOKS TO BE REVIEWED FOR AGING WELL
* “Storycatcher”-The Power and Practice of Story by Christina Baldwin
* “From Age-ing to Sage-ing”-A Profound New Vision of Growing Older
by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
* “Aging Well" --A Harvard Study by Dr. George Vaillant, M.D.
-Guideposts to a Happier Life
*“Being Mortal” by Dr. Atul Gawande
-Medicine and What Matters at the End
*“The Gift of Years-Growing Older Gracefully” by Joan Chittister
*”Still Here”-Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying by Ram Dass
*”Falling Upward” by Richard Rohr
-A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life